An American embarrassed by American neighbors

[CoryMVA 17]

This is a vent session, sorry....

 

I am an American living in Germany, I love it here. I love the customs, I love the people, I love the formalities that encircle the language and dialect. What has me climbing the walls is that I live next to Americans on both side of me. While one of my neighbors is very quiet, they are SLOBS!! They leave trash on their front porch, they never clean their area sidewalk (like good Germans), and do not get me started on their backyard. The neighbor to the other side of me is LOUD, plays his hip hop freakishly loud, and is also VERY MESSY. His backyard is loaded with dog poop, he leaves mail in his box, until the wind blows it all over my yard. His music has now been playing at a volume that I would think would satisfy a large club all Sunday morning... I have spoken to both sides numerous times, yes I am probably that a**hole neighbor, and have been as polite about it as possible.

 

When I came here, I was excited to leave the US for new experiences, but sadly, living next to other Americans has just brought the annoyances here with me.

 

Should I speak directly with the landlord, and see if he would be willing to snub out this mess?

 

Sorry if this sounds like a whiny post, I am just at a point now where bitching about it seems like the easiest thing to do....

[Seralynn 1]

I am so sorry you are experiencing something like this. We too, love Germany and its people and customs. And while I miss some of our American customs (4th of July celebrations, shopping on Sunday) there are other things to see and do here in Germany and we work around the Sunday shopping.

 

It's people like the ones who live next door to you that make Americans appear rude and boorish...and those particular Americans ARE rude and boorish.

 

As for some of your complaints...they are well founded. First of all, it is a law here in Germany that if you live in a home that has a public sidewalk in front of it, you must keep it cleared of the snow. For the other, perhaps you have some German friends who can tell you what is legal and what is not legal regarding the maintenance of their homes. Of course getting the landlord involved is an option. Perhaps you can get THEIR landlords involved. When we moved here, we were told point blank...that our landlords could and would visit the premises to ensure it was being kept neat and clean. Maybe their landlords need to be told what's going on with their tenants. One of my husband's co-workers was evicted three times from his various apartments for not keeping his apartment tidy. So it is an option.

 

I wish you the best of luck with your situation.

 

P.S. We live in a small town outside of Stutgart in a 6 family complex. We love it here. All of our neighbors are German and with the exception of them smoking in their units and it wafts into the main hallways, we have no complaints. We love it here!

[sarabyrd 18,763]

Try speaking with them first. Say how you noticed the mess gradually growing worse and now it's really disturbing.

 

If that doesn't help (and they don't shoot you - irony alert!) speak to your landlord.

[stuartmartin 46]

Music can only be played at room loudness so as not to disturb neighbours(at any time) and between 1300 and 1500 must be kept quiet and from 2200 also this is in most places in Germany

I bet they read Toytown so they will be ashamed of themselves and maybe sort it out themselves (Or they should do)

Stu

[swimmer 3,705]

 

When I came here, I was excited to leave the US for new experiences, but sadly, living next to other Americans

Maybe that's the problem? You ain't going to get the "new experiences" as long as you choose to surround yourselves with your compatriots?

 

It's a common "ex-pat" trap. Hooking up with people or linking into networks just because they are from the same country.

 

They won't change probably. So perhaps you need to broaden your horizons and integrate - walk the walk as well as talking the talk.

[CoryMVA 17]

Actually Swimmer, we chose a small village 20+ kilometers outside of any major city so that we could surround ourselves with "the locals." We, my wife and I, are working hard to learn the language, customs, and common "good habits" of Germans in our village. We do so, more out of respect for their country and hospitality.

 

If moving wasn't so ridiculously expensive, I would choose that over the lack of common courtesy shown by my fellow countrymen.

[rhody 3,168]

Swimmer, don't assume that the guy sought out his neighbors and chose to live in the same row of houses because they are American. It's difficult to find housing for a family in a country that discriminates heavily against foreigners in general with regards to housing and especially in a region where many Germans themselves have to look for a long time as well. Also if a family is attached to the US forces, the housing office generally does not allow properties to be rented through Maklers with their unfair commission schemes thus reducing the pool of available properties to rent.

[CoryMVA 17]

I am tied to US Forces as I am a contractor with a worldwide defense contracting company. The house I rented was chosen through immobilien as I figured I would have German neighbors. As it turned out, the landlord also listed the houses through the housing office at the Military base. Long story short, I paid provision fees and still ended up with American neighbors.

 

If my neighbors would respect the German laws, customs, and habits, I would care less if they were American or not. I was, and still am, a homeowner back in the states, I haven't lived in a townhouse environment since college, so it's been a readjustment. I really like the place I live in, I just wish it was minus some bass coming through the walls, the dog poop smell coming through to my backyard, and the trash blowing onto my front yard ;)

[katheliz 15,628]

I'm giving CoryMVA a green for keeping on track and not getting huffy about well-meaning posts that came across a little cranky.

[smokeyalien 191]

You can call the cops for a noise complaint if its after like 9pm. The rest you'll just have to work out.

[CoryMVA 17]

Why thank you Katheliz!

 

I completely agree that I am sounding like a whiner, "German experience, yada yada." That being said, there are not a lot of options when you have politely spoken to the owner of the issue on several occasions and yet the problem persists. I would much rather not get the Polizei involved, but if it comes to that, I guess it will be only because I feel there is no other option.

 

Once again, I truly appreciate the info, support, and generally good feeling I always get from the TT community!

[DanHessen 2,963]

A serious question... what makes you think you'd have better neighbors if they were German? I'll trade you mine for yours in a heartbeat. Loud music? I've got a guy upstairs who gets drunk and plays the same Peter Fox song over and over. I mean, I like Peter Fox. But not the same frickin' tune 20 times in a row on a school night.

 

Then there's the "Garten Nazis" next door. Ten years and they've never once ever returned a "Guten Morgen" or "Hello". They're retired so they spend their entire lives working on their bizarrely well-manicured yard complete with garden gnomes that they freshly pain every Springtime. They've got a lemon tree that they keep alive in this climate through the use of some insane heat-pump system. Since I'm not retired I can't mow my grass by Friday afternoon so I get "the glare" if I mow it on Saturday. Whenever we have a cookout they always come out and water their precious plants near the fence and give us the mega shitty look just because we deigned to fire up the grill in the middle of frickin' Summer.

 

And don't even get me started on our FKK friends who live catty cornered. Try playing catch with the kids with some fat 60 year old laying naked on a chaise lounge with her legs splayed out. I had to plant a hedge in that corner to stop the kids from having nightmares at night.

 

Go down to your local bookstore and look in the section covering "Nachbarkrieg" and you'll be amazed at the selection of books covering what is seemingly a national pastime here.... fighting a decades long Hatfields and McCoy feud with your neighbors. It's bizarre, it's prevalent, and frankly you're welcome to it.

[CoryMVA 17]

DanHessen you are absolutely my new hero!!!

 

I never really considered the possible "down sides" to the scenario. I see the German neighbors across the street, and in my village, and they all seem so nice. We also have one of those lovely FKK establishments in our little town, thankfully we are not close enough for our daughters to get a "closer" look!

 

I am making a very one sided point, without thinking about how it could in fact be worse.

 

For the record, if I heard ANY Peter Fox tune more than once, that may be too much

 

You have made my day my friend!!

[DanHessen 2,963]

Actually I forgot to mention the creepy window peeking lady across the street who the kids and I refer to as "the creepy window peeking lady across the street". We've got some lovely neighbors to be sure but unfortunately their yards don't border ours.

[LeonG 13,325]

You can't pick your neighbours but they are not all bad. My friends here live in the same cul-de-sac as her parents where the parents have lived in a town house for 40 years where everybody has well manicured gardens with garden gnomes and their neighbours on either side are their best friends and are invited to their birthdays etc. The friends are only there for a year so they are still building the relationship with their neighbours who also seem super nice by the way, nobody playing loud music or anything like that but yeah, German neighbours wouldn't guarantee that they'd be any better.

[stuartmartin 46]

How about putting some gloves on and poking the dog crap through the letterbox :rolleyes:

[sgt_bo 1]

CoryMVA, if you are associated with a military defense contractor, then you might have more rights then you think you do. you did not get your house through housing, are you not Logistically supported over here? If you are do you not have housing support? It really dont matter if you have housing support or not, all you have to do is go to housing at the nearest installation and put in a complaint about your neighbors, you do nto have to have the last names of the neighbors, just the address. Housing will 1) contact the people living next to you, 2) contact the landlord(s) 3) The locals around you all know about housing, and it could be annoynomous person calling housing.

 

I live in on the economy and love it, course i am not in a townhouse/rowhouse I rented my own house. I do not have americans within 10 houses of me, but we do have a lot of Americans living in our town because of the bigger houses and yards we have.

 

hope this helps

[PezMom3 2,101]

DanHessen's "Garten Nazi" neighbor sound exactly like mine!

[SJ1 2,046]

OP- What does nationality have anything to do with being messy or loud.

 

I have experienced both from every nationality here including Germans.

 

Not all Americans are that way, nor is is the norm in the US.

 

Generalizations only make you look like a jerk.

[Cessreadyxtakeoff 8]

We been here only a year and let me tell you I live in the states and in several countries and for the most part this is a very clean country,yup we love were we live in the back of a house with a nice walk way we don't see anyone and when they do their little get together in the street they look at us weird (I'm not bragging about the car is a piece of crap anyway)our car it's a BMW 740 il big car with plates from Poland I'm Mexican American and also had a big house in USA next to color ppl,yes you guess it, trash in the yard, naked lady with no top in the back yard and more hum...

Here,is quiet,no much crime,and yes poop in the grass and some loud weekends with music but no to bad.I must agree with some post here no because they are Americans means they are pigs,no matter where you from if you were not teach to respect and be proud about your town ,city or village then you don't give *** about your neighbors or yourself.

good luck!

 

ps; will not tell you what people will do in some countries to your dog for pooping in my yard ,but to make the story short you dog will be dead next day if you don't clean it! pick up your shit and go!